


The Hug (And Many Before)

by TheWalkingDebt



Series: T7S Drabbles [4]
Category: That '70s Show
Genre: But only a little, Denial of Feelings, Eric and Donna teasing, F/M, Hugs, Hyde comforting Jackie, Hyde's actually a teddy bear, Mostly Fluff, Pre-Relationship, Self-Denial, also shipping, post 2x02
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-03
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-06-21 07:36:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15552810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWalkingDebt/pseuds/TheWalkingDebt
Summary: Why is Hyde the one she always goes to? Probably 'cuz everyone else gives crappier hugs. Which... isn't saying much.





	The Hug (And Many Before)

He just… he had to ask. And his shirt was getting wet, so maybe this would pry her off him. He was great at scaring her, and others, off through blunt language.

"Why does she always come to me?" Hyde frowned, lemon popsicle still awkwardly clutched in one hand, arms raised above the sniffling cheerleader latched around his neck. Normally, he would have yanked her off, especially in front of any of the guys. As it was... he didn't want to drop his frozen treat, is all. Risking the icy treat he just started? When he finally broke through that first frozen water barrier and gotten to the good stuff underneath? No. Those were seconds he could never get back.  
  
"This happens often?" Eric asked, grinning like the asshole he was.  
  
Hyde scowled properly at him, in a way he just couldn't at Jackie, crying as she was all over him, "Get bent, Forman."  
  
Jackie made a muffled noise against Hyde's shoulder, sounding something like speech, but she was too upset to be coherent. Especially when trying to talk through someone else's whole limb. He patted her on the back with a stiff expression. All he could think about was that his popsicle was melting down his fingers; the sticky liquid drying on his skin was not a pleasant sensation. He wondered if it would be awkward to lick it off while Jackie was still wrapped around him, koala-style.  
  
"Um, couldn't catch that, princess," he finally gave in to curiosity, telling himself he really didn't care anyways. It was just another glib remark to enforce that he was barely listening to her, that he didn’t pay all that much attention to her anyways.  
  
She peeked up at him with wide trusting eyes, all wet and... ugh, okay _yeah_ , she was cute, but that didn't mean anything. He always knew, objectively, that she was hot. Otherwise what the hell would Kelso be doing with her? But finding her attractive, body-wise only and nothing else, meant zilch. Thinking a girl was gorgeous and liking her were two entirely different things.  
  
"You give the best hugs," she sniffled out honestly, sending Forman and Donna into gales of unrepentant laughter. She glared at the pair of them as Hyde's face went hot. No, no he wasn’t blushing. Girls didn’t make Steven Hyde flush-faced like a Beatlemaniac at Shea Stadium, 1965. This was just… her makeup was rubbing off on him. _Stupid toxic, easily transferable facepaint_.

He resisted the urge to bury his face in the nearest object (i.e. Jackie's shoulder) and stared up at the ceiling for strength. He didn’t have anything to hide, dammit, and even if he did, he certainly wasn’t about to conceal anything in Jackie’s lavender scented hair or peach perfumed neck.  
  
"Um, no, I don't hug," he corrected her, trying desperately to tug away from her iron grip. But, maybe it wasn't quite desperate, and maybe it was a little more halfhearted. He didn't want to hurt her.

...Look, she had a really painful shin-kick, alright, and sometimes she even resorted to biting. He just didn't want to deal with all that rage in one tiny body. "I don't _do_ hugs." He didn't. Tough guys didn't hug. After all, Red certainly didn't, although his son was a total girl and probably loved hugs. Hyde didn't need hugs, or any signs of affection, because he wasn't a freaking wuss like Forman and guys shouldn't need or want hugs. Even from hot chicks. 

"It's not really a competition," Jackie rolled her eyes, finally backing off and rubbing her eyes carefully. Her makeup had smudged onto his shirt a little but otherwise remained mostly intact on her face. His hands itched to rub away the faint grey tracks, so he occupied them with his popsicle and pocket. "Eric's all gross and bony, Donna smells like Bob, Fez gets all gropey, and Michael..." her face crumpled slightly before she pulled herself back together, "Michael's always trying to go further. You’re like a teddy bear by comparison.”

“Aww,” Eric and Donna cooed in chorus; they’re double-act went unappreciated by both spectators.

“Get bent,” Hyde growled at them but quickly turned his gaze back on Jackie. "When'd you hug Forman?" he raised an eyebrow curiously, arms now crossed over his chest. Jackie almost looked amused, but befuddlement was the strongest emotion playing over her face. The scrawny boy in question lifted his hands in quick surrender.  
  
"Look, she came onto me, man," he grinned, though. "What can I say, guess I'm pretty irresistible." His smug, though obviously mocking, tone and the self-satisfaction in his eyes had Donna rolling her eyes. Hyde only glared at him, tension winding up like a spring in his chest.   
  
Though the scruffy stoner couldn't exactly place why he was mad. He just was. Probably because Eric's stupid pompous face was pissing him off.   
  
"Yeah, irresistible," Hyde drawled. "In fact, I can't resist..." he leaned in and punched Eric in the shoulder sharply, smirking to himself when the other boy winced and rubbed it with wounded eyes.   
  
"You still haven't told us about all these other times Jackie's hugged you," Donna finally chimed in, teasing him with curious eyes and hidden smile. Hyde rolled his eyes and mumbled something about having better things to do before storming out of the basement. He didn’t want to talk about it, about Jackie, and something about this whole conversation was picking at his stomach like crows on roadkill. His whole body was tense - wired like a car bomb - and uncertain. He hated all of the sickening, swirling emotions in his chest because that same nausea had a tendency of blurting out his actual feelings on any matter, and he didn’t feel like spilling his guts today.

Or ever.  
  
"Oh, he probably just means the last two times me and Michael broke up," Jackie's lower lip trembled before she screwed up her face again, forcing the sadness away with babbling. "Or there was this time a spider crawled on me, and the last three games the Vikings lost, or when I spilled paint on my cheerleading uniform..."   
  
Eric and Donna traded amazed looks as Jackie rambled on. It sounded like she had gotten more hugs from Hyde in the last two weeks than either he or Donna put together got in 10 plus years of friendship.

"...the time our cheerleader car-wash only raised fifty dollars, and we looked really cute that day, so I don't know why some people didn't tip better...  _God_ people are so selfish!"   
  
"Does Hyde...?" Eric looked sick, felt sick, as he glanced to Donna's similarly stunned face. No _way_ was this possible. ...But he could get some good burn material out of it, regardless, so he'd focus on the fact that maybe Hyde just was bad at prying Jackie off him. They weren't really meaningful hugs if he didn't initiate, or even return, them right? No. No indeedy.

"...and when I realized I had matched the wrong shades of pink for my lipstick and my nail polish but I was at school and it was too late to change either of them..."

Besides, Hyde and Jackie was like… Han and Leia! Or worse, Leia and Vader! No way would that ever be a thing. Especially not Han and Leia, not when Leia and Luke were so obviously destined for each other...

_Focus on that, Forman. Luke and Leia._

"...oh, and once I slipped and fell in the cafeteria and it could've been _soooo_ embarrassing but Steven caught me so that was kinda like a hug if you count that..."  
  
"I think he _does_ ," Donna nodded, amazed, causing a shudder to run through her boyfriend's spine. No, no Donna was wrong. Donna was so wrong, and so was he, and so was Hyde if he and Donna were right!  
  
Jackie stopped blubbering, realizing they were no longer paying direct attention to her, and sulked, "Does what?"  
  
Donna grinned at Jackie, but her eyes were tensed with a small amount of disgust, "Hyde _likes_ you."  
  
The younger girl's jaw dropped and her eyes went wide, and for a second, she was absolutely winded, before she let out a quiet, " _Ewww_!"  
  
Yet, it didn’t seem as though her heart were entirely into her voiced sentiment. She hid a small smile as she jumped up and ran from the basement, heart thumping curiously. Why did she care if Hyde liked her? _She didn't_.  
  
...He couldn't, though, right? Even if it sent her mind reeling at the possibilities. But no. Steven Hyde? And Jackie Burkhart? Talk about two opposites. He could never like her. She’d _never_ like him, what with him being so dirty and scruffy and poor and... manly-smelling... Michael always stank so strongly of musky cologne it made her eyes burn. But Steven, er Hyde that is, was more Old Spice and peppermint, along with the sweet aroma of incense and pot just underneath. Another plus of hugging him was how good he smelled.

But no, that wasn’t going to happen. Not in this lifetime. No.


End file.
